The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

SA firms bring energy concerns to Canberra

South Australian businesspeople have met with Malcolm Turnbull to express their concerns over a "perfect storm" of unreliable and costly energy hitting their state.

A 12-strong delegation - the Committee for Adelaide - spoke with the prime minister, Treasurer Scott Morrison and SA senator Nick Xenophon in Parliament House on Tuesday.

The committee's chief executive Jodie van Deventer told reporters after the meeting other parts of Australia aren't immune to the electricity blackouts that have rocked her state.

"In many respects we are the canary in the coal mine," she said.

Mr Turnbull said his government understood the threat to business in SA where energy was the most expensive and the least reliable in the nation.

"We are determined to ensure that you have that and all Australians have that, and we want to talk to you today about how you're seeing those challenges and how we can help," he said opening the meeting.

The group is also urging Senator Xenophon's team to back the government's 10-year plan to cut company taxes.

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The NXT is only committed to reduce the tax rate for companies with an annual turnover up to $10 million.

Delegation leader Colin Goodall said the tax incentives were needed to encourage companies to grow and employ, otherwise the state's jobless numbers would start rising.

Tax cuts aside, Mr Goodall said short-term solutions for energy security had to be sorted out quickly, with a revamped Australian Energy Market Operator that was not guided in its decision-making by vested interests.

The state's electricity polls and wires must also be upgraded and laid underground, rather than running overhead through gumtrees that catch fire.

"The pole and wires we have got in South Australia, and I expect in other places, were probably designed 50-60 years ago, well before any idea or renewable energy," Mr Goodall told reporters.